I have shopped at Cabela's for years. Granted, I was not near being their best customer, probably a mediocre one at best. I would visit their stores whenever I was in the neighborhood of one. I guess I shopped most at the one in PA. I also have done some shopping with them online. My shopping with them has come to a screeching halt.
I recently ordered 10 boxes (500 rounds) of PMC Bronze, 115 grain, FMJ, 9mm ammo from them. They showed the item as in stock, received my order while it was in stock and sent me a confirmation email saying it was in stock when I ordered and it would be delivered by July 30th. Then a few hours later they sent me another email, splitting my order into two parts. Part one consisted of 6 boxes of that ammo and part two consisted of the other 4 boxes. In that second email they said that part one was not available as it was sold out for the season and that part two was on backorder and not expected to be back in stock until July 3oth. That second email to me from Cabela's also seemed to indicate that even though the new price would be about $100 less than the original order, the payment was still the amount from the original order!
I called their customer service and the customer service representative was very surprised to see what had happened since the first email confirmed my order but the second one had split it into two parts, which he said he could not understand. Now I happen to have checked on that ammo again after I had ordered it, not because of that second email, I did not open that one until today thinking it was a duplicate of the first one confirming the order (shame on me). I checked on the ammo again because I was thinking of getting more of it. Well, when I checked, less than a day after placing my order, it was not sold but there had been a major change in price. It had gone from $14.99 per box to $21.99 per box. See my previous blog post about this: http://ballseyesboomers.blogspot.com/2013/07/pmc-bronze-9mm-115-grain-fmj-ammo-at.html.
They certainly have not explained this satisfactorily to me and I emailed and spoke to them about it. One of their reps told me it still sells for $14.99 per box even though they had plainly changed it to $21.99 just hours after I had placed my order at the lower price; of course, she also indicated it was out of stock. I think they must have listed the wrong price when they had it for sale at $14.99 per box. I think they did not want to honor sales of it at the lower price, except a maybe few token boxes, like the 4 they said were on backorder for me - if the backorder would even ever be filled. I think they were baiting and switching. Of course, those are just my thoughts but based on my thoughts and what they wrote and told to me, I have decided not to shop there any longer unless they come up with something amenable to me to correct the situation. If they don't and I am pretty sure they will not, I will just have to say: Fuck Cabela's.
The story has a happy ending though, at least so far. This evening, I found out that SGAmmo.com was offering the same ammunition by the case for a penny and a half less per box. At first, when I placed the order with Cabela's a couple of days ago, I had not wanted to buy a case of it mostly because of the cost. Even the price of a half case was a bit much for me but I had a friend who was going in on it with me and he was taking 200 rounds and we were going to split the cost accordingly. Tonight though, when I saw the same ammo offered at virtually the same price, but only being sold by the full case, I decided to go for it anyway regardless of whether or not it is going to empty my pockets of more than I wanted to spend. Hopefully my friend will still take at least 200 rounds and who knows maybe he will go for 500 instead and there won't be as big a bite out of my budget. Either way, if he takes any or not, the way ammo has remained overly high priced, this is a good deal right now. I know one thing for sure, if I wind up keeping all of it, it definitely is not going to go to waste - the Sixth Annual Bloggershoot is forthcoming. I can only hope that the order with SGAmmo goes to fulfillment as my past orders with them have always done.
Oh, one other thing, don't get your hopes up. It is already sold out. I posted about it on a local gun forum and the very first person to reply, about 26 minutes after I placed my order, said it was sold out.
All the best,
Glenn B
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